Compromise-based approach to road project selection in Madrid metropolitan area

This paper deals with an operational technique to specify the utility function in decision-making problems such as road project selection under non-strict uncertainty. We propose here a multicriteria compromise programming (CP) proxy for utility. As a special case, the CP proxy turns into net present value. A case study on five highway projects aimed at improving transport opportunities in the Madrid metropolitan area is developed. After defining five suitable criteria or attributes for the model, these attributes (discounted value of savings in travelling costs, investment, rights of way, noise pollution, and urban capital gains) are specified in the random context for various states of nature. From this information, the compromise-utility proxy with market-based social weights is estimated, and expected utility maximized to rank the projects. Tables are incorporated to display the computational process.